City fire chief eyes sprinkler laws

PORTSMOUTH — The city's fire chief is renewing his push for stricter sprinkler laws in the wake of this week's 10-year anniversary of the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island.

Comment

By Charles McMahon

seacoastonline.com

By Charles McMahon

Posted Feb. 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Charles McMahon

Posted Feb. 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

PORTSMOUTH — The city's fire chief is renewing his push for stricter sprinkler laws in the wake of this week's 10-year anniversary of the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island.

One-hundred people died and more than 200 others were hospitalized as a result of a fire that broke out inside the crowded club on the night of Feb. 20, 2003.

Portsmouth Fire Chief Christopher LeClaire said stricter laws need to be in place both at the state and local levels to prevent such tragedies from being repeated.

LeClaire, who is president of the New Hampshire Association of Fire Chiefs, said this week he and other chiefs in the state are supporting a proposed bill in the N.H. House of Representatives that would amend state law relating to sprinklers in buildings.

House Bill 278 seeks to amend a state law that restricts a planning board from requiring or adopting any regulation that requires the installation of a fire suppression sprinkler system in proposed one- or two-family residences as a condition of approval for a local permit. It also seeks to change a law that prevents municipalities or local land-use boards from adopting any ordinance, regulation, code or administrative practice requiring the installation of automatic fire suppression sprinklers in any new or existing detached one- or two-family dwelling unit in a structure used only for residential purposes.

The proposed bill, which is sponsored by state Rep. John Hunt, R-Rindge, involves adding stipulations to both laws that do not prohibit an applicant from offering to install fire suppression sprinkler systems as a condition of approval for his or her project.

LeClaire said he and other fire chiefs in the state support HB278 because it undoes legislation passed by the Republican-controlled House that essentially made requiring sprinkler systems against the law.

"This bill doesn't require sprinkler systems per se, but it at least puts sprinkler systems back on the table as a tool for developers and planning boards," he said.

The proposed bill went before the House on Feb. 20 and was voted back to the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee for more work.

Regardless of what happens with HB278, the fire chief said he is an advocate of sprinkler systems in all new construction.

LeClaire said many buildings have been retrofitted to include sprinkler systems as a result of the deadly fire 10 years ago.

He said fires like the one in Rhode Island, as well as one in Brazil that killed 230 people in January, are preventable if strict fire codes laws are implemented.

LeClaire said he would also like one day to see a city ordinance that requires sprinkler systems in all new construction.